Rail-brace.



s. M.- WHITMORE.

RAIL BRAOE. APPLIOATION nun 00m. 12, 1901. nmmwnn MAY 3, 1909.

Patented Oct. 19, 1909.

SAMUEL M. WHITMORE, OF PREGNALL, SOUTH CAROLINA.

BAIL-BRAOE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 19, 1909.

Application filed October 12, 1907, Serial No. 397,176. Renewed May 3,1909. Serial No. 493,749.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL M. WHIT- MORE, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Pregnall, in the county of Dorchester, State ofSouth Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inRail- Braces; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to rail braces and has for its object to providea brace of this character which may be readily applied to the rails of asection of track and which will effectually prevent both spreading andapproach of the rails. In other words the brace is designed to hold therails firmly at the proper gage and the device is adjustablle as tolength in order to secure this resu t.

Broadly stated, the brace comprises a pair of members which have theiropposing ends threaded and upon which ends of the members there isengaged a turn buckle, the other ends of the members being extendedbeneath the base flanges of the rails and being bent to engage the outersides of the said flanges and having formed at the upper ends of theirbent portions flat rail-web-engaging plates which firmly brace the railsagainst spreading. Threaded spike headed bolts are engaged through themembers inwardly of their bent end portions and serve to securely holdthe rails against approach toward each other.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1' is a side elevation of thedevice as applied to a track section, Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinalsectional view therethrough, and, Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view ofone of the members of the rail brace.

As shown in the drawings, the brace comrail, these rails being indicatedby the numeral 9. The said end portions of the brace members, afterbeing extended beneath the rails, are bent as at 10 to conform to theupper face of the outer side of the respective rail base flange andthese portions 10 are formed at their extreme ends with verticallydirected rail web engaging plate portions 11 which are substantiallyrectangular and flat and which are designed to abut against the outerface of the web of the respective rail, it being understood that therails are in this manner held against spreading. It will be noticed thatthese plate portions 11 are formed on the portion 8 so as to extendbeyond the sides thereof and that the portion 8 has formed adjacent theportions 11 a reduced shank made by narrowing the portion 8 in itswidth. The object of this is to provlde a spring connection between theweb engaging head 11 and the bar 5 so that any inequalities ofconstruction of either rail or brace may be taken up when the brace istightened.

In order to prevent approach of the rails toward each other, bolts 12are engaged through the squared portions 8 of the brace members andthese bolts are provided with rail base flange engaging heads 13 whichengage the inner edge of the base flange of the respective rail. Theopenings in the squared portions 8 through which these bolts are engagedare preferably rectangular and the major portion of the shank ofeachbolt is squared so that a nut 14: which is engaged upon each of thebolts may be turned to tighten the bolts to the said base flangeswithout likelihood of the bolt turning.

From the foregoing description of my invention it will be understoodthat the rails are held both against spreading and approach and it willfurther be understood that by reason of the fact that the openingsthrough which the bolts 12 are engaged are rectangular and the boltshanks are squared the rails may be quickly and securely clamped inplace and that there Will be no possibility of the bolts turning tocause their heads to disengage from the rail flanges. Another advantagedevised by me lies in the fact that by manipulating the turn buckle 7the rails may be spread or drawn toward each other as may be desired tobring them to the proper gage, and it will be appreciated also that aless number of ties may be employed than is usually the case inasmuch asthe rails are held, after being adjusted, se curely against relativemovement.

What is claimed, is

A track brace comprising a pair of adjustably connected sections eachconsistingof a bar having one end threaded and the other end flattenedto extend beneath the base flange of a rail and thence bent to engagethe outer top portion of said flange;'a bent portion laterally taperedto form a neck, a T-head formed on said neck to engage the outer side ofa rail Web and the under side of a rail head, said neck forming ayieldable connection between the T-head and flattened portion, and meanscarried by each of said sections to secure a rail on the inside baseflange.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature, in presence of twoWitnesses.

SAMUEL M. HITMORE. Vitnesses R. L. UTSEY, G. S. WAY.

